Displaced

Proverbs 27:4, oil on board, 50.5 x 42 inches, 2008

"Wrath is fierce and anger is a flood,But who can stand before jealousy?"Proverbs 27:4

The pictures that can be imagined in the book of Proverbs are fascinatingly apologetic to me. Proverbs 27:4 gave me pause as I noticed that anger was compared to a flood. Upon further thought I realized that, like a flood, anger will ruin your home, pick you up (emotionally), and take you where you do not intend to go. Have you ever regretted something said or done in anger? It's a powerful emotion and one that, I'm told, covers other vulnerable emotions like feeling rejected, scared, pressured, trapped, offended, or attacked. This painting is a reminder for me that anger left unchecked is dangerous but forgiveness calms the storm. It's impossible to stay angry if you choose to forgive who and/or whatever circumstances have offended you.

Prison, oil on canvas, 42 x 47 inches, 2013This painting is founded on the need for Christ to live in us and through us. In this piece a choice is depicted between closing the blinds or lifting the blinds. On the one hand leaving the person in darkness and in the other hand revealing light for the person to see. As ambassadors of Christ we have the privilege to offer the life-light (Jesus) to everyone. Galatians 6:8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Romans 7:14-25 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. Jeremiah 32:27 "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?"